This invention relates to means providing a joint for the weld-free connection of intersecting pipes or tubes abutting each other substantially perpendicularly within a conduit system. It also provides such a joint in a manner that it can be simply and effectively sealed.
It is illustrated herein, by way of example, as forming part of a heating and/or air conditioning installation in a building. In a case such as this the conduit system may be arranged on the outer walls of the building, in the region of its facade lining, to provide that portions thereof forming vertical and cross members are heated by solar radiation. This heat can be used to condition the temperature of rooms in the building, wherein the conduit system forms an advance and return system for a fluid transport agent supplying heat to the rooms and an advance and return system for a fluid transport agent carrying the heat away.
The construction of such a conduit system involves problems because the joints therein must fulfill certain conditions from the point of view of fluid mechanics. These problems have been particularly found to exist in the joints provided between intersecting pipes or tubes which in most instances are at right angles to each other.
The present invention not only overcomes these problems but enables the achievement of a simple, economical and effective weld-free joint between intersecting tubes within a conduit system the nature of which facilitates both assembly and maintenance procedures and preserves the efficiency of the system of which it forms a part.
As far as prior art is concerned, German Publication DE-PS No. 28 57 662 has some general pertinence. It discloses a means with which perpendicularly abutting tubes can be joined in a weld-free manner to form a T-joint. Per its disclosure a bush in which an axial central internal thread is formed is screwed into the end of one tube, perpendicular to, crosswise of and abutted to the end of which is a second tube clamped thereto by means of a screw bolt. However, this publication does not deal with or solve the problems encountered in the case of intersecting tubes.